Tuesday, 5 June 2007

I'm sure a couple of you must be short story writers. If this isn't inspiration on a plate, I don't know what is. Remember, this actually happened. Every one of those men is in that photo; in that costume, and on that ferris wheel for a good reason, which, if we could only ask him, he would be able to explain, and wouldn't find in the least unusual or absurd. I would dearly love to know what that (those) reason(s) is (are).

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Apparently this was a political show - large parts of Colorado being effectively run by the Klan in those days - with Klan showing up all over the place as a demonstration of numbers and hence power. "We're here, this is ours, all of this is ours no matter what it is, and pretty much everyone here is one of us anyway, as you can see."

I hate to be the one to correct James, but I think this is actually a publicity still from Zulema Knocke's Wheel of Race Hate Roadshow. Zulema Knocke's Wheel of Race Hate was the turd in the crown of American forties game shows: Married couples would stand blindfolded on a barrell and have to guess the ethnicity of mystery guests from the shape of their skull. Four or more out of five correct guesses would merit a spin on the Wheel of Race Hate. This would always come up Three Klansmen, and the couple would win a fence, which the Klansmen would then burn down. Everyone would then stand on the barrel over the closing credits and wave. This Roadshow was a last ditch attempt to boost dismal ratings (the last ditch can be glimpsed in the background on the right) after the scandalous discovery that all the Klansmen employed were actually midgets fired from the set of Casablanca, and not - as viewers had been led to believe - just a bit further away. Also of historical interest: all this was of course before Photoshop, so the photographer's credit has had to be spelt out in doves at the foot of the ferris wheel. I hope this clears things up. x

Damn, wrong about Ronni and Co. Thought I had your work sussed. I was planning on writing the definitive John Finnemore sketch. Course, in my one, the punchline would be a swearword or someone getting hit with a pie.